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 Using Select SW Items to Attract Customers

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Roby




Posts : 439
Join date : 2008-09-06
Location : Canada

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PostSubject: Using Select SW Items to Attract Customers   Using Select SW Items to Attract Customers I_icon_minitimeMon Apr 13, 2009 3:53 pm

I've become aware of a practice that some mallers use in that they price some items very near to the shop wizard price in the name of drawing in more customers which, in theory, buy more than they came for. Have any of you tried this to the extent that you can comment on it's success or lack thereof? I think it may be useful in a category such as foods where customers are presented with a multitude of items which all do the same thing and are disposable; however, I think in some cases, such as quest shops, this technique would be utterly useless.
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Egg
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Egg


Posts : 892
Join date : 2008-08-02
Location : British Columbia, Canada

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PostSubject: Re: Using Select SW Items to Attract Customers   Using Select SW Items to Attract Customers I_icon_minitimeMon Apr 13, 2009 4:11 pm

It's kind of using a "loss leader" and probably works as well in Neopets as it does in the real world. I bet you're right about it being more effective for a food shop than a quest shop, anyway.

I've toyed with the idea, but never really tried it. I've seen discussions where it was judged as underhanded. I dunno. It would be interesting to track, if you actually could. The wiz price would have to be over 1000 to leave a trail in your history.

I wonder what others think about this.
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Roby




Posts : 439
Join date : 2008-09-06
Location : Canada

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PostSubject: Re: Using Select SW Items to Attract Customers   Using Select SW Items to Attract Customers I_icon_minitimeMon Apr 13, 2009 4:25 pm

Mmm and just as I get back from starting my experiment Egg replies!

I think I'm going to try this as a technique for the next few weeks.

The aforementioned experiment involved buying up 250 Chocolate Chip Cookies at <500 NP prices. I think I got almost all of them ><. I plan to put them in at 499 NPs and see how they do. I'll also police my section of the shop wiz by buying up everything underneath to keep them at the lowest (first) spot.

I think I'll also try and find a 1k item to look for a trail as was mentioned by Egg.

Should having 250 cookies prove to be too many...well, maybe it'll be a second experiment on if having large quantities of an item leads to greater sales ><
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Roby




Posts : 439
Join date : 2008-09-06
Location : Canada

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PostSubject: Re: Using Select SW Items to Attract Customers   Using Select SW Items to Attract Customers I_icon_minitimeMon Apr 13, 2009 4:43 pm

A-hah! I've found it!

Banana Sundae

I can find large quantities for less than 1200. I'll buy 50 of these and have them at the ready stocked at around 1k.

Here we have it prepared, bought at ~1100 ea, an easily searchable, good looking, common item with a price of about 1000.

Currently in the er category ther lowest price is 1300 and the majority are 2000. This should make mine stand out after it is in place. We'll have to wait and see.
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tsangpo

tsangpo


Posts : 143
Join date : 2008-09-05
Age : 34
Location : Australia

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PostSubject: Re: Using Select SW Items to Attract Customers   Using Select SW Items to Attract Customers I_icon_minitimeMon Apr 13, 2009 5:16 pm

A lot of scratchcard only shops use this technique, they have ~500 Race to riches scratchies and then have a markup on all their other ones. The only reason I'm not doing it is because I don't have enough room in my shop for 500+ of one scratchcard.
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spunky_munky_gal

spunky_munky_gal


Posts : 669
Join date : 2008-11-03

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PostSubject: Re: Using Select SW Items to Attract Customers   Using Select SW Items to Attract Customers I_icon_minitimeWed Apr 15, 2009 3:56 am

Someone from my old mall tried this - can't remember what stock they used. They tracked users and those who bought the SW priced items almost never bought anything else. I know in my experience when there's been a sudden price rise (like when something is made NH2.0 compatible) the users who buy those items don't buy anything else.

But who knows - they might bookmark our mall for quest purposes...so I guess it's worth trialling.
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Egg
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Egg


Posts : 892
Join date : 2008-08-02
Location : British Columbia, Canada

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PostSubject: Re: Using Select SW Items to Attract Customers   Using Select SW Items to Attract Customers I_icon_minitimeMon Apr 20, 2009 1:48 pm

That sounds familiar, spunky. I think we ran an experiment and found more hits, but no appreciable increase in category sales - but this was ages ago.

I just read where someone put piles of codestones in his shop at SW or SSW prices. This was over at NeoMallers. He posted his Shop History several minutes later, and --- lots of hits, lots of sales, but only 2 category items that I could see.

I guess if someone knows to use the Shop Wiz, what would they be shopping in your mall store for? Laughing

still ... It would be one way to beat Xaheras' hit counter .... pirat
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Roby




Posts : 439
Join date : 2008-09-06
Location : Canada

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PostSubject: Re: Using Select SW Items to Attract Customers   Using Select SW Items to Attract Customers I_icon_minitimeThu May 07, 2009 7:58 pm

Looking back upon the past weeks it is found that...

Nothing really happened.

Yes, the Watermelon and Banana Sundays did sell well. However, the Watermelons generally sold as solo items while the Banana Sundays generally sold on their own merit.

With the Chocolate Chip Cookies, I have sold almost 40, but most likely through their notoriety of being the cheapest item in the shop by 550 Neopoints.

Top sellers were

Ultimate Burger ... 38
Chocolate Chip Cookie ... 37
Banana Sundae ... 22
Watermelon ... 16

Roast Ham ... 15
Rainbow Doughnut ... 14
Sandwich ... 13
Grackle-Stuffed Turkey ... 12
Cheeseburger ... 1
Pizza ... 10
Drym Shaped Frosted Sugar Cookie ... 10

or by gross sales

Ultimate Burger ... 134,900 NP
Chocolate Chip Cookie ... 37,000 NP
Sandwich ... 35,750 NP
Cheeseburger ... 35,400 NP
Rainbow Doughnut ... 32,900 NP
Pizza ... 31,500 NP
Roast Ham ... 29,250 NP
Watermelon ... 28,000 NP
Strawberry Faerie Sundae ... 27,650 NP
Banana Sundae ... 27,350 NP
Super Sub ... 23,450 NP

Oh and notice the indomitable force that is the Ultimate Burger?
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Egg
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Egg


Posts : 892
Join date : 2008-08-02
Location : British Columbia, Canada

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PostSubject: Re: Using Select SW Items to Attract Customers   Using Select SW Items to Attract Customers I_icon_minitimeThu May 07, 2009 8:33 pm

heh - I am really impressed with the crazy Ultimate Burger sales. Shocked You're making about 2k on each one, too. What you really need is more treats like that!

Also, the Drym Shaped Frosted Sugar Cookies are probably right up near the top of your best markups, considering how cheap you can get them. I have a few true junk-level items like that, too - almost pure profit.

Anyway, I haven't said anything about the wiz-pricing issue. You're kinda confirming what I guessed, from the sounds of it. What do you think about your experiment? Think you'll tinker with it some more?
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Roby




Posts : 439
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PostSubject: Re: Using Select SW Items to Attract Customers   Using Select SW Items to Attract Customers I_icon_minitimeThu May 07, 2009 9:19 pm

I think the results of the experiment pretty well confirm that it's not worth taking the small profits, particularly when some of the items seem clearly capable to selling on their own merit.

I plan to add more items to my shop that are similar to the Grackle Stuffed Turkey, Dyrm Shaped Frosted Sugar Cookies, Neo Crackers (also sold 10) which pull in about 1.5k per sale. More Ultimate Burgers need to be found. I think some items, like the Banana Sundae have the potential to be similar to this as they are appetizing, common in the real world, and relatively pricey.

Further plans include a banner to discount items (like the Dyrm Cookies etc) as they are high profit and expansion of my stock to 3 pages, though I doubt I'll be holding on to many line type items. I note that in the case of doughnuts, for example, only the Rainbow one sold well, thus negating the need to hold on to other such items.

While I'm on a roll talking about my stock I'll indulge myself in some further, though unrelated discussion.

On gross foods, the items that are not similar to real world ones (point in case, fish pops) are going to get the boot as they haven't sold well even at their low prices.

Other laggards include some less colorful items, items that are out classed by similar ones (note Coco Neocrunch, Destructo Munch versus Asteroid Puffs Cereal which even at the bottom of the page had sales equal to the two of them; or other types of Pizza I stock verus normal "Pizza")

However, examples contrary to these, such as the three variety of omelets which have sold almost evenly.

I'm also looking to add more fruit.

Pleasant surprises have included:

-Strawberry Faerie Sunday (3950, expensive)
-Homemade Gingerbread House (A replacement for one of Ling's similar items which was a mid-line seller and is now buried but has sold 9)

Back to discount items for a moment: I currently have 18 selling at 1550, the 'discount' price. 6 of these have been duds. (all the fish pops, neoflake cakes, scary soup). This needs to be optimized, as 1/3rd of high profit items shouldn't be (almost) unsold. They don't, however, start until mid page which is good as it balances my sales. I'll make a visual on what sells where later.

In short, after this big, messy tirade...

More:

-Ultimate Burgereqsue Items
-Bright colorful items
-Junk items
-Fruit
-Items in general

Less:

-Repetition
-Outclassed items
-Middle page laggards (Top sells well, bottom sells pretty well, middle lags)

Hope to hear some ideas from all of you. :happybunch:
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spunky_munky_gal

spunky_munky_gal


Posts : 669
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PostSubject: Re: Using Select SW Items to Attract Customers   Using Select SW Items to Attract Customers I_icon_minitimeFri May 08, 2009 4:31 pm

Sounds really good Roby. The results of your experiment kind of don't surprise me, but it's nice to check these things every now and then.

I try to periodically move out my slowest sellers to try something different. I've also just added a few of the new cheap advent etc items (which are at the end of my shop) and a couple of them started selling on the first day. It makes life more interesting changing your inventory - prevents boredom!
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